Liliha Moments

By Photography by Paul Chesley, Text by Sheila Sarhangi

Published: 2009.11.03 11:00 PM

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Oahu Cemetery, Nuuanu Avenue Founded in 1844, Oahu Cemetery was established for people of non-Hawaiian descent. “If you were a foreigner in the 1840s, unless you were a member of Kawaiahao Church, you didn’t have a place to be buried,” says cemetery historian Nanette Napoleon. “Merchants and missionaries wanted to accommodate foreigners dying in Honolulu, so they petitioned King Kamehameha III for a public cemetery.” Notable permanent residents include Benjamin F. Dillingham, creator of O‘ahu Railway and Land Co., and Alexander Cartwright, often regarded as “The Father of Modern Baseball.”

Three girls, Liliha Street “These girls were just hanging out and having so much fun,” says Chesley. “I just let them sit there and do their thing.”

Maemae Elementary, Wyllie Street “Missionary Elizabeth Waterhouse lived here with her husband, John Waterhouse Jr., on Wyllie Street across from Maemae Elementary’s present location,” says school principal Pearlene Blaisdell. “Mrs. Waterhouse saw that Hawaiian children weren’t going to school, so she got together with Kaumakapili Church and they started Maemae Elementary School in 1885.” Today, it’s one of the oldest public schools in Hawai‘i, and has more than 600 students in grades kindergarten through five. In this image, children link hands in front of artist Catherine Iwami’s ceramic mural, which was created from students’ drawings and completed in 1993.